Base-lock for horizontal units.



E. STUCK.

BASE LOOK FOR HORIZONTAL UNITS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 29, 1912.

Patented lieb. 23. 1 915.

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Patented Feb. 23, 1915.

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E. "STUCK.

1 BASE LOOK FOR HORIZONTAL UNITS.

APPLIOATIQN FILED MAR 29, 1912.

Patented Feb. 23, 1915.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 29, 1912. Serial No. 686,993.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EVERETT STUCK, a citizen of the United States,residing at Jamestown, in the county of Chautauqua 5 and State of tainnew and useful Im 'rovements in Base- Locks for Horizontal nits, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanism for 10 looking drawers and for usein horizontal units" Wood or metal, which units are capable of eingstacked up in a vertical series similar to the so called well knownWernicke secg-cases. The invention also relates to the construction ofsuch units in metal. One object of my invention is to construct a basesecti 11 having a locking and control- 2.0rlin mechanism therein.

, nether object'of my invention is to construct intermediate. horizontalsections capable of engaging with or being stackedup 1 on said basesection and locked thereto, said sections containing drawers or otherfiling mechanism.

' Another object of my invention is to provide said horizontal sectionswith a locking mechanism for said drawers to prevent the 80 openingthereof. 4 I v Another objectofmy invention is to make the lockingmechanismof each section complete within itself, a part of such lockingmechanism interchangeablyconnecting, reg

t5 istering and interlocking with the locking mechanisms of othersections and with the base section by which it may be controlled.

Another object of my invention is to con stru ct the locln'ng mechanismsoas to perto: mit the return of and the locking of individualdrawers inone section without disturbing the remaining drawers or unlocking the li g mechanismof the other sections...

Another object of my inventionis to en- 45. able thelockingmechanisnrofv the base to operate and control allthe lockingmechanisms of the series of sections above the base.

other objectsofqmy invention will be fully findand pointed thereof. V.Tn .the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective New York, haveinvented ceris particularly adapted made ofqeither' the described, inthe. specification out in the I claims .at' the end view of the basewith the ama Feb. as, rare.

.locking mechanism thereof exposed. Fig. 2

is a perspective view of the casing andlockmg mechanism thereof, partlybroken away, to show the operating tail view of thelock which controlsall the parts. Fig. 3 is a deoperating parts. Fig. 4 is a detailperspective view of the locking mechanismthatis used for joining thefirst section to the base. Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the mechanismshown in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a perspective new of the assembled case,showing the position of the locking bars. therein. Fig. 7 is a verticalsectional ten for locking consecutive sections together r In theaccompanying drawings like reference numerals indicate like parts.

In the drawings, reference numeral -1 inview showingthe butdicatesa basesupported on four legs 2,2,

which are indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. Mounted to -oscillate inthis base is the rock shaft 3 which has a handle 4 thereon which extendsthrough by which the parts hereinafter described may be operated. Th1shandlehas thereon the cams 5 and 6Jby against. rotation, as willpresently be descrlbed. v

Onthe rear of the shaft is the crank 7.

' which-is keyed thereto. Connected to this shaft is the link 8 which atits other end connects with the bell crank 9 which is pivotally mountedon the -'arm .of thecrankengages with the bar'll which is mounted toslide in suitable guides in the first'unit section 13 above thebase, asis. illustrated in Fig. 6.

In Fig. 2 I have illustrated a perspective skeleton view of a stack ofthe sections in following order: first, a unit section of base at 10.The free the-front of the base and which the shaft 3 is held 4 largesize, second, a ledge top, third, a unit section of small size, fourth,a section containing a sliding shelf, fifth, a unit section of smallsize.

It will be noticed that in Fig.6 the various size unit sectionimmediately thereabove by the-reference numeral 13, the ledge top 14,the reduced section 15, the sliding shelf secparts are indicated asfollows: the base by the reference numeral 1, the large tion 16,the'last reduced "section 17, and th?*""# cap '18. J With the bell crank9 in the base section is the series of bars whichare vertically in linew1th each other, through which the motion is transmitted to the variouslocking rock shafts that are contained in the several sections wherethey are needed.

In the large unit section immediately above the base, the bar 11 iscontained,

which bar has the pin 29 thereon. Mounted in this section is the rockshaft 20 having the shown in sections 15 and 17 of Fig. 2. A'

spring 23 is shown engagedwith the dog 21 at one end and withthe case atthe other end, by which the rock shaft '20 is normally held in theposition in which the dog is in position to lock the drawer of thefiling device. The bar 11 is of the same length as the vertical heightof the section which contains it. On top of the section 13 is placed theledge top .14, and in this ledge top is contained ,the locking bar 24which is of the same length as the vertical'height of the ledge top. Inthe section 13 the guide 25 1s prov1ded for the purpose of holding thebar 11in place. i No guide whatever is provided however for the ledgetop 14, the locking bar being kept in place as follows;- The locking bar24 is provided with a ferrule '26 at its lower end, which ferruleengages with the top of the bar 11, with which it can rise and fall. Thesection "15 is provided with the locking bar 27, which bar is 4 which itrises and falls. 0

held in place by the guide 28. At the bottom this bar 27 restson the bar24, with It has thereonthe pin 29 which engages with the arm 30 for thepurpose of rocking the shaft 2Q in the section 15, it being understoodthat the arms, rock shafts and locking dogs are substan-. tially thesame 'in all of the sections, the, difference being confined to themethod of transmitting the motion of the locking bar.

from one section to the next.

Placed above the section 15 is the sliding shelf section' 16, whichsection has no part therein to be locked and from which therefore therock shaft and dogs thereonare omitted. This section contains thelocking bar 31, which bar is held in place by the guide 32 which isintegral with the section 16,. Above the section 16 is carried thedrawersection 17 which has therein the bar 32", held in place by the guide 33,which barjhas pins thereon for the purpose of engaging with and causingthe rocking of the rock shafts and their dogs, as has hereto-' fore beendescribed.

It will be seen that by arranging the vertical bars for transmitting thelocking effect from the lower section as has been herein described, anysystem of sections may be "base lock will more securely hold the variousfiling devices locked so that they cannot be unlocked by the simpleexpedient of taking the various sections apart. To secure this result Ihave provided a special locking device in the basefor holding the firstsection to the base, and auxiliary locking devices for locking eachconsecutive section upon the section below it, which locking devices areaccessible as follows: The locking device in the base is accessible fromthe opening in the bottom thereof and can only be got at by turning thebase upside down, or by reaching under it by hand.

Thebase locking device will now be described.

' Keyed to the shaft 3 is the disk 40 which has the pins 41 and 42thereon. Mounted to slide in the base are the bolts 43 and 44. Thesebolts have the slots 45 and 46 therein, through which passes the shaft 3and by which they are held in place. The bolt 43 has the shoulder 47thereon and the bolt 44 has the shoulder 48 thereon. With thesemovement. The bolts project beyond the guides with a suitable tonguewhich is adapted'to engage the flange with the unit sectionwhichrests onthe base, this flange being indicated at 51 in Fig. 1. The shaft 3 islocked in the position indicated in Fig.

1 by the lock shown in Fig. 3, as will presentl appear, and while soheld it directly holds the bolts 43 and 44 in locked engagement with thefirst unit section. The upper .unit sections are. held together bylocking devices that are indirectly controlled by the base lockingdevice, as will presently'appear, so that the base locking devicedirectly or indirectly prevents the filing case from being taken apart.

Consecutive sections interlock with each other in the manner indicatedin Fig. 2. The top of each section isstepp'ed at the sides, as indicatedat .in Fig. 2. The bottom-of each section rests on the top of thesection below it, as indicated at 71 and 72, while the sides of thesection extend below the bottom and age -turned in as indicated at 7 3toengage with the stepped sides ofthe section below it, which engagementwill preventconsecutive sections from movin laterally on each other, thestepped si es together forming a continuous uni-' the ends of the builtup gamete form surface on case. I

Pivoted to the under side of the top of I each section at each sidethereof are .the

locking-buttons 74 which swing through slots'75 in thestepped side 70 ofthe sec tion. When the sections are in place'as is indicated in Fig. 2,and the drawers or other filing devices are removed therefrom," thesebuttons are accessible so that they may be turned to the positionindicated in Fig. 2,,

in which position the button in the top of each sectioniwill engage withthe -inturned flange 7 3-.on the bottom of the section above it-"andlock the two securely together. If the drawers or filing devices are nowput in place and locked in place, it is obvious "that'the' buttonscannot be turned back, and all of the parts of the section will be moresecurely locked together; so that the base look of the whole series willcontrol the Whole section. These same buttons 74 are used on the ledgetop or the sliding shelf sections. I under side, so that the buttons maybe reached from beneath, permitting either of these sections to beconnected to the section unit may be connected or fastened to the secabove, after which both sections as a-sing'le tion below, thus holdingall of the sections securely locked. together, as above described...

- The section below completely-closes the opening in the ledge top orsliding shelf section through which the buttons can-be.

preventing any tampering the pawl 53, pivotally mounted at 54. This pawlat it's forward end has a curved recess terminating with an abruptshoulder 56 r with which the cam (ion the shaft 3 is adapted to engage,by which the backward I ,rotation .of that: shaft'is prevented.- The 50pawl 53 is pressed upwardly by the leaf spring 57 contained in thehammer the case. 'Mounted the base is the barrel 58 of an ordinary Yalelock, which can be turned by a suitable key therefor. On the end bf thisbarreland eccentric to its center" of rotation, is provided a pm 59normallyin engagement with the pawl 53. By turning the pin-tothe rightand down from the pos1tion shown .in Fig. 3, the pawl 53 is depressedand the shoulder 56 istaken out of engagement with the cam 6 on-the,shaft 3, permitting the handle to be turned down from the horizontalposition shown in Fig. 1.

When-the handle is'turned. tothe position shown Fig.1 the pawli53,

urged up devices to be removed These sections are hollow on' the" 'bars'and the rock to act as guides for thebars and causes the locking barsto hold'the rock shaft 20 against ward by the spring 57, willsnap inbehind the shoulder of the cam 6 and lock the shaft 3 in the positionshown.- -.An additional shoulder 58* is provided which engages withtheshoulder 56 to hold the shaft 3 from moving beyond. its unlockedposition. This effect may also be secured by the pins 41 V and 42engaging with the sides of the bolts 7 and 4:4.

\Vhen the shaft 3 is placed in the position shown in Fig. 1, the lockingbars 11, 24, 27, 31, 32*, etc, will all be-lowered, permitting thesprings 23 on the locking dogs.21 to press them down into lockingposition, and

when the shaft 3 'is given a quarter turn fromthe position shown in Fi d1, the looking ba rs aforesaid will all be hfted, causing the dogs 21 tobe raised out of engagement with. the filing devices,

rom the casing, and also permitting access to the various buttons whichfasten the filing devices together.

' The locking bars 11, 27 and 32", it will'be noticed, are made up'oftwo parallel bars spaced apart by blocks, while the bars 24 and 31 aresolid bars. The bars 11, 27 and 32 carry the pins 29 extending betweenthem, which in turn engage with the arms 30, the arms 30 bein rocked bythe raising of the bars because of their engagement with the pins 29.This engagement between the arms causes the rock arms endwi'se movement.I v

It will be understood that the base section ermitting the filing can beof any size and that the unit sections together with the angles 61 ofthe base, completely incloses the bell crank 9 and prevents accessthereto and'to the lower'endof the bar 11. The angle 61 is cut away topermit the, bar 11 to pass therethroughand the cube stacked up in anyorder thereon that shield 60 is slotted to let the connecting rod 8through, thus insuring the. proper .OPGI'Br, tion of the parts andpreventing interference with orimproper manipulation thereof.

Havingthus described my invention, what lclaim is new and patentable-isas follows:

1. The combination in a system of horizontal units, of a. base section,unit sections placed thereon having drawers or filing devices containedtherein, locking devices individual to said unitdevices to hold thefiling devices therein, ing a rock shaft and a dog carried thereby,-vertical bars carried by each of said unit sections and each bar havinga; lengthwise extending slot and" each .of said bars having a lengthsubstantially equ'allto the vertical height of its section, the bars ofthe several said locking devices .includ-v sections adapted to bealined, and means on the rock shaft engageable with the vertical barswhereby the bars of one section are adapted to connect the lockingdevice of that section to the lockingdevices of the unit sectionsaboveand below it, said last named means extending substantiallyhorizontally from the end portions of the rock shaft and through theslots of said vertical bars so as to be directly engaged by said bars.

2. The combination in a system of horizontal units, of a base section,and a series of units superimposed thereon having drawers or filingdevices, each of said units carrying a bar of substantially the samelength as the

